Notice & take-down

On 28 November 2013, Google received an ex-parte interim order from an
Irish court to block the publication of a photo image of convicted
solicitor Thomas Byrne which appears as a search result alongside the
profile of Irish Senator Thomas Byrne, a solicitor himself.

Google considers it cannot be held liable for what comes up in its
search results, as it only creates a snapshot of content that is
elsewhere on the internet and this so-called “caching defence” is
covered by the EU’s e-commerce directive law, allowing ISPs to not be
held liable for being a mere conduit for information.

However, Google is no longer a mere provider of search results
reflecting the content of websites elsewhere on the internet as it
currently offers a range of products and services that brin

On 2 October 2013, EDRi signed a joint letter together with other civil
society groups and organisations (CCIA, EDIMa, EuroISPA, EEA and EMOTA)
asking the competent EU institutions to act on the amendments to the
draft Regulations on Market Surveillance and Product Safety that could
have far-reaching consequences affecting online commerce and Internet
intermediaries freedom.

The letter asks not to extend the scope of the Regulation to cover
intellectual property, as that would undermine legal certainty and put
an excessive burden on businesses, particularly SMEs.

Also, the text points to a number of amendments that would undermine the
principle of technology neutrality and would specifically burden
e-commerce by singling out ‘online’ trade and seeking to impose
far-reac

In a case opposing the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and Google
Spain, Niilo Jaaskinen, the Advocate General of the European Court of
Justice (ECJ ), issued on 25 June 2013 his opinion that, on the basis of
the Data Protection Directive, search engine service providers are, in
principle, not responsible of personal data appearing on web pages they
process.

AEPD requested Google Spain to remove results regarding an auction
notice for a repossessed home, based on a complaint from a person who
had claimed that the search results were infringing on his right to
privacy and who had asked for the removal of the results.

Last week, European Digital Rights attended the second annual Stockholm Internet Forum which focused on two main themes: Internet Freedom and Security and Internet Freedom and Development. A novelty this year were the Unconference sessions.

On 14 May 2013, the German Federal Court ruled that Google auto-complete
feature may, under certain circumstances, constitute an infringement of
the personality right, under the German Civil Code and the German Basic Law.

Since April 2009, Google has introduced an "autocomplete" feature
integrated into the search engine, which automatically brings forth
suggestions, as word combinations, when a user enters a search in a
window.

The Wikimedia Foundation was asked on 4 March 2013, by French spy agency
Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (DCRI), to remove its
article in French “Station hertzienne militaire de Pierre sur Haute”
(the military station of Pierre sur Haute) considered by the agency to
contain classified military information the publication of which
violated the French Penal Code.

According to a judicial source quoted by AFP, the request for the
deletion of the article was due to the fact that

After a year of working group meetings, the “CEO Coalition to make the Internet a better place for kids” produces its final documents on 4 February. The outcome of the project is a set of voluntary guidelines divided into five broad headings, ranging from “reporting tools” to “notice and takedown,” It is intended that this will be followed up by a meeting, in about six months, between Commissioner Kroes and the CEOs of the companies responsible. The meeting is designed to put pressure on the CEOs to fully implement the “voluntary” measures.